Tuesday, 6 June 2017

3rd June 2017 - WMBC outing to Somerset

We decided we wanted to close the gap in the big year listing competition with Tony "Big List" Jackson and "Big" Dave Robinson, as the gap was nearly up to 70. We planned a trip down to Somerset, where we hoped we would add a few to our list and catch the retired boys on the hop.

CJW agreed to drive and I was stood outside my house waiting for him to arrive. Another car came down the street. It was driving quite slowly and was looking at all houses, as though he was looking for someone. Then I saw his face and instantly recognised him. It was The Stalker! He stopped and sat there. I carefully gathered my gear together and managed to sit in the back without him noticing. Then CJW drove down. I attracted his attention and we were both sat in The Stalkers car without him even knowing. Finally, we were stalking The Stalker!

We were hoping he was going out birding and not to work, and we were quite pleased when his first stop was at a secret site. We followed him down a path of some sort, through some sort of habitat and there was the target bird. A good start to the day. The sky was blue, and it was warming up nicely.

We managed to get back in the car, and waited for the next location. It was Alvecote Pools and we stood behind The Stalker as the Corncrake started rasping away. It was all going too well.

The Stalker then headed down the M5. Just as he entered the fast lane and hit 70mph we decided to jump up, shout, and announce our presence.

We managed to get the car off the embankment and back onto the motorway and carried on down to Somerset and a return visit to Ham Wall. Our forward party of Phil, Phil and Ged were already on site, staking the birds out so we didn't have to do any work ourselves. We parked up, marched down to the far end and following a lengthy session of barking, the male Little Bittern came to the top of the reeds and showed well.

Lord Lichfield at his best

First year tick in the bag, and as usual, the birding at Ham Wall was fabulous. We saw a fly over Cattle Egret, a Bittern in flight and a Bearded Tit. It really is up there on par with Westport. We headed back towards the car and disaster struck. We already knew from our drone cam that "Big List" Jackson and err Big Dave had been to Gloucestershire to see the Hoopoe. We didn't know where they were heading next. Imagine our horror when we saw the pair, along with third member Gladwyn walking along the path. We stopped and spoke briefly. They had already seen the Red-footed Falcon from the car, but we just blurted out we didn't need that as we were already on 310 for the year. The look on their faces was a treat. Off they ran, squabbling amongst themselves.

Following a call from Martyn Yapp, we met up on the car park with Mrs Yapp, Jules and "Tame" Tom Perrins and started looking for the distant RFF. We did have two Hobby and a glimpse of the RFF, but it wasn't until Jules rang us to say it was showing from the bridge that we had corking full frame views. Second year tick in the bag.

The immature female Red footed Falcon sat on the branch on the right

We had a quick check on the Meare Heath pool, dipping the Glossy Ibis but seeing two crisp drake Garganey. Finally tally was eight GWE, a Little Bittern, a Bittern, a Cattle Egret, two Garganey and a Red-footed Falcon. Not bad at all.

We headed back up the M5 towards Gloucestershire. We got stuck in a bit of traffic as it was the end of half term, but we were soon on site at Cranham Common. It looked like a classic butterfly site like ones we'd visited before, but there were none to be seen. We did see a few orchids, but as we were looking, someone whistled from up the slope, and the Hoopoe had been refound. Five target birds - five birds seen. But more importantly, we'd reduced the gap on "Big List" Jackson by one.